It started with rain and light snow on March 12, 1993, and by the following day turned into the Storm of the Century.
The Blizzard of ’93 left millions in the cold, stranded without power for days. It caused billions of dollars in damage stretching from Florida to Maine and claimed more than 270 lives.
For those old enough to remember, it’s still a topic of conversation today.
As we look back on the blizzard from three decades ago, we asked readers to share their stories and photos. Many of you did. Below are some of them. We’ll share more throughout this 30th anniversary week.
If you haven’t already, please visit Now Habersham’s Facebook page or email [email protected] to share your Storm of the Century memories.
READ MORE The Blizzard of ’93: 30 years later
Newlyweds
Tommie and Evelyn Lewallen: “We were scheduled to get married on March 13th, 1993, but because of the Snow Storm, we had to change the date. The day before, and I mean actually a one-day decision, we had to cancel the 13th and get married on the 12th. We had the radio station (WCON) announce the wedding changes and had to call everyone that was involved. It was crazy, and I mean crazy. We gathered everyone for our rehearsal/wedding. Yes, our rehearsal turned out to be our wedding day. Before we could get finished, it started to snow. We pulled it off, but that was not the only challenge we were facing. We were headed to Townsend, Tennessee, for our honeymoon. We thought we could beat the storm enough to get there. WELL, that didn’t happen; we ended up stranded on the side of the road with power lines and trees falling. Spent the rest of the night in the car trying to figure out what we were going to do!! Praying that no trees or power lines would fall on us.
A large tree had fallen across the road, so we had no way of even trying to move forward. In fact, we could not even figure out where the road was. Just in time the next morning, a very large power truck came up and helped us turn around and back up to Pigeon Forge. Up there, the snow was at least 4ft and 5ft. in some places. Hotels were closing everywhere because the power was going off. We actually got the last room available, and all stores and restaurants were closed. Thank God our kids had fixed us a box of food, drinks, and other items just in case.
We will never forget this adventure, it is one for the books.”
Duty calls
Laura Stallings-Wood: “I was 7 months pregnant with my daughter during the blizzard and working for Hall Co 911 (still working there). I could not get out of my driveway to meet the officer that had been assigned to let me ride to work with him. My brother put me on the back of the four wheeler to get to the main road. It took us over an hour to get to the center. No such thing as you couldn’t make it in to work.”
A picture’s worth a thousand words
Stanley N. Tyler, Sr.
Calls for help
Sue Nold: “I worked for Standard Telephone as an operator. This was before 911. I worked the overnight shift and was receiving calls from all the surrounding counties. Fortunately, the phone lines were working in most areas, but the power was down, people were calling for help, and ambulances had a hard time getting to them. It was heartbreaking.”
Blizzard Baby
Charlotte Holland: “My daughter was born. We had an extremely hard time getting to the hospital.”
Call of the Wild
Joyce Lewallen: “I was 4 years old during the blizzard of the century. My mother, brother, and I lived down a long driveway in Franklin, N.C. We didn’t have cable television, we only had VHS tapes, and my favorite was Beauty and the Beast. I would watch it, rewind it, watch it, rewind it (we even had a fancy rewinder that took half the time). Since I apparently couldn’t be coerced or bribed to watch another movie, and I found the movie every time it was hidden, it’s needless to say, my mom was going batty.
We had been snowed in for a week at that point, and my mom decided she had done her time. She grabbed a shovel and began shoveling snow to the main road. It took days, but the second she carved her freedom out of the snow, she grabbed her car and went straight to the store and got the VHS Call of the Wild.”
